“A once-in-a-century pandemic, eruption of geopolitical conflicts and extreme weather events have disrupted supply chains, caused energy and food crises, and prompted governments to take unprecedented actions to protect lives and livelihoods.” Thus does the IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook describe economic events since early 2020.

Yet, overall, the world economy has shown resilience. Unfortunately, however, but unsurprisingly, high-income countries — blessed with more policy space — have shown more of it, while developing countries have shown less. In sum, “[w]hereas the former have caught up with activity and inflation projected before the pandemic, the latter are showing more permanent scars.”